The Primetime Emmys were largely expected to go down from last year's Monday high, and final scores have the three-hour telecast dropping an unkind 24 percent. The Fox telecast averaged just 11.9 million viewers and an overnight 8.7 rating among metered market households in the face of an especially strong Sunday Night Football on NBC.

Final adjusted Nielsen returns for the telecast have it averaging just shy of the previous low audience from 2008. That year the ABC telecast only nabbed 12.2 million viewers.